Derailed…

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…but hopefully back on track.

Days 9, 10, 11, & 12 were a bust.  Short days at work did not allow me to get out to run at lunch and with Jen gone for a few days with David the weekend proved difficult as well.  While I stayed active (taking the stairs at work rather than the elevator, etc.), I don’t think I can honestly count these days as fulfilling the quest I set out for.  Kind of a bummer.

Day 13 – Monday – This was a day off of work for me and I had high hopes for a traditional workout while the kids were at school and day care.  However, a broken car derailed those  plans and I instead spent the entire day replacing the front right shock/strut on my 2000 Toyota Camry.  This proved to be quite a challenge and a ton of hard work so I think this day long exercise does count – I ended up with a sore back and sore legs. Plus I was able to fix my car!! Bonus – saved about $200 by doing it myself!

Day 14 – Tuesday – Back on track! Sunny and warmer today and I was able to get outside and run.  Only 3.18 miles on snow-packed, slushy, wet, and icy trails but it felt good.  Based on my heart rate, I’d say my fitness is improving a bit – while my pace is still slow my heart rate is no longer maxed out the entire time.  So, some improvement – I’ll take anything I can get.

LINK TO RUN

4-16-2013 5-26-29 PM

Day 6, 7, 8…

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…of 21.

Day 6 brought a non-running day and super busy day at work.  Instead of being able to a normal YMCA workout of some kind, time forced me to take a different route.  Being that I work in a 50+ story building, I have no shortage of stairs to climb and I took advantage of that by putting in 20 minutes going up.  Good workout and a nice change of pace.

Day 7 was another non-traditional workout.  I was planning on running at the fire station after our evening training, but a evening fire in Oakdale changed those plans and I spent most of the evening moving hose and working on a ladder company.  This proved to be a solid workout for the night… Here’s some video:

Oakdale Town Home Fire Video

Day 8 allowed me to make it back to the gym and treadmill.  In an effort to find some more speed in my running I changed up my standard treadmill run for something a little different.  Here is what I did – rather than a run focused on distance I instead focused on time and effort. I started at 6 mph on the treadmill (10:00 min miles) and each minute for 10 minutes went up .1 mph finishing at 6.9 mph – after the 10:00 minutes, I reset back down to 6.0 and started working back up again.  Doing this allowed me to average a 9:19 pace for the 30:00 minutes and finish 3.22 miles – this is a big improvement over past efforts.  This was hard but doable.

LINK TO RUN DETAILS

Day 5…

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…of 21.

I had planned on getting up early and running first thing this morning.  That didn’t happen so it forced me to get a bit creative with fitting in my workout for the day.  David (my 8 year old son) had hockey in Hudson from 5:30 to 7:45 pm so I helped him get ready to skate, watched him for a bit, and then headed over to the Hudson YMCA for a short run on the treadmill. I watched an episode of the Walking Dead while I ran and I felt pretty good.  Pace is getting better. LINK TO WORKOUT

4-7-2013 10-17-42 PM

 

See you on the road!

Day 4…

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…of 21.

Ran in the rain today.  This actually proved to be a nice change from the sleet, snow, and cold that has been the normal so far this spring.  It was about 50 degrees and, while I still wore my coat and long sleeved shirt, I was quite comfortable even with the steady rain.

I also ran an entirely new route today.  I’m sure at some point I’ve run something similar to this route, I don’t think I’ve every run this EXACT route, so that made it kind of fun and interesting.  You can see it the route I took in the screen shot I included from Endomondo.com below.  LINK TO WORKOUT

4-6-2013 6-03-11 PM

Another thing I did differently today was that rather than listening to music like I normally do, I instead listened to a fitness focused podcast.  The podcast I listened to today was from Rich Roll, endurance athlete and author of Finding Ultra, and included an interview with Brian Mackenzie of CrossFit Endurance fame.  While I haven’t finished the whole thing yet, it proved to be a good listen while I ran – both interesting and informative covering two topics that I enjoy – CrossFit and running.  I highly recommend the Rich Roll podcast and if you are inclined to listen, you can find it here.

I clearly need to adjust my training plan a bit moving forward.  I am not as far along with my fitness as my training plan thinks I am – I’m getting better, but I have a ways to go.

See you on the road!

 

Day 2…

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…of 21.

Ran 4.54 miles in Woodbury today. Nice run but slow. Overall feeling better, but my speed is not really picking up. I’m hoping that the interval stuff I have planned starting next week helps with my pace on the longer runs. LINK TO RUN

4-4-2013 Summary

Also, after yesterday’s run I found this post on Runners World Facebook page very interesting. How Can I Avoid Midrun Bathroom Breaks?

Day 1…

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…Of 21.

Running today – 4 miles. Felt pretty good but I got some stomach cramps around mile 3.5 – not fun. I remember having some stomach upset when I was running before, I think somehow I was hoping that was gone, guess not. I ran on the treadmill at the Minneapolis YMCA.

Here is a link to my run entry on Endomondo.com – I’m tracking all of my running and exercise there.

Been running more and other updates…

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Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been really focused on running more, getting consistent, and finding time in my busy schedule to once again make fitness a top priority.

What I’ve found is that It’s not easy. I’m not sure that it ever was.   I am also not  saying that things are more challenging now than they were 5 or 6 years ago when I was running a lot, but man – it’s HARD.  Given this, I thought it would be a good idea to re-read some of my more popular posts I wrote for CompleteRunning.com during the time I was successful and a couple of them stood out as relevant. Here they are:

  • Get Out the Door! This one includes a bunch of tips that may help get you out the door and running even on days you feel like sitting on the couch – good stuff!
  • Making it All Work: Integrating a Fitness Plan into Life -  This one made me realize that I’ve always been busy and my schedule has always been a challenge.  I’ve made it work before, I can make it work now.  It’s all about priorities.

Reading these really made me realize how much I used to enjoy running and also how much I’ve missed it over the past two or three years.  While I’ve always kept running at some level, really focusing on it has helped top bring me some focus.  The other thing that has really helped is that I’ve signed up for a few runs this spring/summer/fall and there are a few other events I am planning on doing as well.

So far here is my plan:

  • Challenge Obesity 5K – April 21 – This is one of the first organized runs I ever did after I lost nearly 200 pounds and I’m super excited to be heading back to do it again.   It has a small town feel in the middle of St. Paul. (Registered)
  • TC 1 Mile – May 9 – This is another one that I have done before (2007 & 2008) and is a very fun race.  I love pushing myself and I hope that I can do my fastest 1 mile ever at age 40 – well technically 40 minus 9 days. This also gets me in a lottery for the Twin Cities 10 mile run in October. (Registered)
  • Be The Match Walk/Run 5K – May 18 – This is my 40th Birthday and I’m hoping to do this one with my family.  (Not registered yet)
  • Something?? – June sometime – I’d like to find a fun even to run in June.  I have nothing planned right now, although I think I am going backpacking on the Superior Hiking Trail with Troop 559 in June also…
  • Afton Trail Run – 25K - July 6 – I’ve never done a trail run this long before and I’m looking forward to it, should be fun. (Registered)
  • Ragnar Relay Great River – August 16-17 – This one sounds really fun – 200 miles from Winona, MN to Minneapolis, MN done as a team of 12.  I am working on pulling together a team from the fire station, right now I have 5 team members committed. (Not registered yet)
  • Woodbury Country Mile Half-Marathon – August 25 – This is another one that I have done in the past a few times and always proves to be great.  The course runs on many of the same trails I train on throughout Woodbury, so it’s vary familiar. (Not registered yet)
  • Twin Cities 10 Mile - October 6 – This is dependant on getting a spot in the lottery from runnign the TC 1 mile in May.  Would be fun and a good warm up for the next run…
  • Mankato Marathon - October 20 – The full monty, the whole thing, all 26.2.  This will be a great end to a fun season of running.
  • Go Ruck Challenge – November 30 – This is not so much a run as it is a life changing, attitude altering, ass kicking.  Should be an interesting 8 to 10 hours of wet, cold, miserable fun.  I posted about this one here, we’ve had to adjust the date (twice) – but I think its a go for November.

So that’s it – my spring/summer/fall in a nutshell.  I’m going to work hard to keep this blog updated with my progress and mileage.

See you on the road!

GORUCK Challenge, Accepted.

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I’ve been looking for something to get me going again and fire me up a little bit.

I think I’ve found it.

I just signed up for the GORUCK Challenge – an 8 to 10 hour excursion (for lack of a better word) with a group of about 30 people and one former special forces military ass kicker leading the way.  We will start somewhere in Minneapolis on July 12th at 10:00 pm and run/walk/hike our way around the city to the tune of about 20 miles. Along the way we will do fun stuff like carry big logs, wade through muddy water, and do countless push-ups and the like.  Oh yeah, did I mention that we do all this while wearing a backpack (Ruck sack) with 6 BRICKS inside?

And yes, I paid to do this and it’s going to be AWESOME.